Sir Simon Denis Rattle is a British-German conductor. He rose to international prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, while music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980–1998). Rattle was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic from 2002 to 2018. He has been the music director of the London Symphony Orchestra since September 2017. Among the world's leading conductors, in a 2015 Bachtrack poll, he was ranked by music critics as one of the world's best living conductors.
The Berlin Philharmonic is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic, officially known in shorthand as LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September. Gustavo Dudamel is the current music director, Esa-Pekka Salonen is conductor laureate, Zubin Mehta is conductor emeritus, and Susanna Mälkki is principal guest conductor. John Adams is the orchestra's current composer-in-residence.
The Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129, by Robert Schumann was completed in a period of only two weeks, between 10 October and 24 October 1850, shortly after Schumann became the music director at Düsseldorf.
Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: The Tempest (2004), Violin Concerto (2005), Tevot (2007), In Seven Days (2008), and Polaris (2010).
Unsuk Chin is a South Korean composer of contemporary classical music, who is based in Berlin, Germany. Chin was a self-taught pianist from a young age and studied composition at Seoul National University as well as with György Ligeti at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg.
Julian Anderson is a British composer and teacher of composition.
La mer, trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestre, or simply La mer, L. 109, CD. 111, is an orchestral composition by the French composer Claude Debussy.
The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (NYO-GB) is the national youth orchestra of the United Kingdom, consisting of 164 members of ages 13 to 19 years. Auditions take place in the autumn each year at various locations in the country. The minimum standard needed to audition is ABRSM / Trinity Guildhall / London College of Music Grade 8 Distinction, though it is not necessary to have taken any examinations. In 2011, the orchestra was shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society's Best Ensemble Award. In 2012, the NYO received the Queen's Medal for Music. In 2015 the NYO received the Royal Philharmonic Society's Ensemble award, which recognized particularly the launch of NYO Inspire as well as their other work.
Simon Holt is an English composer.
Kenneth Hesketh is a British composer of contemporary classical music in numerous genres including dance, orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo. He has also composed music for wind and brass bands as well as seasonal music for choir.
Tevot is a one-movement symphony for orchestra by the British composer Thomas Adès. The work was commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall. The world premiere was given by the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Simon Rattle at the Berliner Philharmonie on February 21, 2007. The United States premiere was given by the same ensemble at Carnegie Hall on November 14, 2007.
Become Ocean is an orchestral composition by American composer John Luther Adams. The Seattle Symphony Orchestra commissioned the work and premiered it at Benaroya Hall, Seattle, on 20 and 22 June 2013. The work won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music and the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. In 2019, writers of The Guardian ranked it the 10th greatest work of art music since 2000.
Andrew Norman is an American composer of contemporary classical music whose texturally complex music is influenced by architecture and the visual arts.
Let me tell you is a song cycle for soprano and orchestra by the Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen. The work was commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic with support from the Danish Arts Foundation. It is based on the eponymous 2008 novel let me tell you by the writer Paul Griffiths. Its world premiere was given by the soprano Barbara Hannigan and the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Andris Nelsons on December 20, 2013.
Albert Horne is a South African-born chorus master and orchestral conductor, whose focus is opera chorus preparation and operatic performances. He worked for the Cape Town Opera and has been chorus master and conductor at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden since 2014.
Sustain is a 2018 composition for orchestra by the American composer Andrew Norman. The work was premiered on October 4, 2018 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, as part of their centennial season.
Klaviermusik mit Orchester, Op. 29, is a 1923 piano concerto by Paul Hindemith. Subtitled Klavier nur linke Hand, it is a piano concerto for the left hand alone. It was commissioned by the pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in the World War. He never played the piece, and when he died, his widow refused access to the score. The premiere, after her death, was played in Berlin in 2004, with Leon Fleisher as the soloist and the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Simon Rattle. It was published by Schott.
SPIRA—Concerto for Orchestra is an orchestral composition written in 2019 by the South Korean composer Unsuk Chin. It was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which gave the piece its world premiere under the direction of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on 5 April 2019.
Chorós Chordón is an orchestral composition written in 2017 by the South Korean composer Unsuk Chin. The work was commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic for the orchestra's tour of the Far East as part of Simon Rattle's final season as their principal conductor. Its world premiere was given by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Rattle at the Berliner Philharmonie on 3 November 2017, though the composition was shortly thereafter performed in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Kawasaki, and Tokyo.
